Young player not ardent to the game & put Pakistan squash down in the world ranking, Mohibullah

Peshawar: Former World Squash No.II and training Coach Mohibullah Khan has said that unless the young players take keen interest in the game, it will be impossible to get laurels of World Title back to the country.

Addressing a “Meet the Press” programme organized by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Sports Writers Association KPSWA here Qayyum Sports Complex on Wednesday. President of the association Nadir Khawaja and General Secretary Javed Ali were present on the occasion.

He expressed concerns over the young slot of squash for taking less interest or they are not ardent to the game, which put Pakistan squash down in the world ranking.

He said there was a lot of talent about squash since the very inception upto now but the difference among the players of that time was that, they used to working hard and the players of today have become lazy, can’t stay on the court even for two hours constantly for practice and then how they compete the top ten players.

There was a time when Pakistan ruled the world squash for almost three decade from Hashim Khan to Jan Sher Khan, but unfortunately, the year of 1997 was a bad oven for the country when Jan Sher Khan got retirement due to his knees problems and no one onward could succeed in achieving glorification of the British and world squash title.

Regarding Pakistan Squash Federation PSF, Mohibullah Khan lauded that it was providing all kinds of squash related facilities to the players while in response they Players were giving no good performance.

Giving some tips about the game, the squash coach said since squash was a tough game more than others and there were four points for a good player including use of mind, eye side, fitness and footwork, which were very important if a player wanted to register his name in the list of memoirs.

When asked that majority of the players went abroad for coaching in different countries, he said, “When a player is not bestowed with a job in any department, how he will feed his family members, so, let them earn there”, he explained.

Responding to different queries, he said Pakistan female squash players felt shy while playing the game on the court, so, that was the reason none of the female players could not clinch any title on world level.

Mohibullah Khan, who was also Director of Pakistan Sports Board Coaching PSB Center Peshawar, said it was trying no stone left unturned to promote sports in the country, for which he added had provided facilities of free training and hostel etc to the players of various games.

Dispelling the impression that players and coaches belonging to Nawi Kalli, creating hurdles for other newcomers in squash, he said they did not believe in leg pulling and if a player had the talent, no one could dare to stop them from squash.